Free City of Cracow
Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow and its District | |||||||||||
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| 1815–1846 | |||||||||||
Location of the Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow with its Territory within Europe | |||||||||||
Territory of the Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow with its Territory (orange) and its three neighbours (Kingdom of Prussia, Austrian Empire and Russian Empire) | |||||||||||
| Status | Protectorate of Austria, Prussia, and Russia | ||||||||||
| Capital | Cracow (Kraków) | ||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic, Judaism | ||||||||||
| Government | Constitutional republic | ||||||||||
| President of the Senate | |||||||||||
• 1815–1831 | Stanisław Wodzicki | ||||||||||
| Legislature | Assembly of Representatives (Kraków) | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 3 May 1815 | |||||||||||
| 29 November 1830 | |||||||||||
| 16 November 1846 | |||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||
• Total | 1,188.8 km2 (459.0 sq mi) | ||||||||||
| Currency |
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| Today part of | Poland | ||||||||||
| History of Poland |
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Timeline of Polish history |
The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow and its District, more commonly known as the Free City of Cracow (Polish: Wolne Miasto Kraków) and the Republic of Cracow (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Krakowska), was a city republic created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which included the Polish city of Cracow (Kraków) and its surrounding areas.
It was jointly controlled by its three neighbours (Russia, Prussia, and Austria), and was a centre of agitation for an independent Poland. In 1846, in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Kraków Uprising, the Free City of Cracow was annexed by the Austrian Empire. It was a remnant of the Duchy of Warsaw, which was partitioned among the three states after the Congress in 1815.
The Free City of Cracow was an overwhelmingly Polish-speaking city-state; of its population 85% were Catholics, 14% were Jews, while other religions comprised less than 1%. The city of Cracow itself would develop a Jewish population reaching nearly 40% in the years following the end of the Free City, while the rest were almost exclusively Polish-speaking Catholics.